That is, those in which one of the members is missing are often found in both colloquial and literary speech. Not only secondary, but also the main members of the sentence - the subject or predicate - may be absent from them.
Their semantic load is easily restored both from the context (from the sentences preceding the given one) and from the knowledge of the interlocutor or reader of the situation.
Example of an incomplete sentence:
Where is your brother?
Here “Left” is an incomplete sentence consisting of one word. It misses the subject, but you can understand from the previous statement who exactly we are talking about (the brother).
It is somewhat difficult to distinguish between incomplete and one-part sentences in which either the subject or the predicate is missing. Here you can use the following criterion. For example, from the sentence “They are picking berries in the forest,” it is completely unclear who exactly is performing the action. Let’s take another example: “Where are your friends? “They pick berries in the forest.” The subject is missing here, but from the context you can easily determine who exactly is performing the indicated action (girlfriend). This means that in the first case we are dealing with a one-part sentence, and in the second case with an incomplete two-part sentence, although the list of words in them is exactly the same.
It should be noted that dialogue with incomplete sentences is the most common, characteristic situation of their use. For a teacher, studying such examples in educational practice, it is enough to simply create in students the idea of an incomplete sentence as a type of a complete one - in contrast to one-part sentences, where one of the (necessarily!) main members is not missing, but is simply impossible. To do this, you can also compare complete and incomplete sentences. In incomplete, all members retain the same grammatical forms and functions as in complete. In turn, they can also be incomplete if the word that is missing from them can be easily restored from the context:
What's your name, girl?
Incomplete sentences (examples can be found below) can be of two types, depending on how their meaning is restored: contextual or situational. Inside the first there are:
Knowledge is power.
As for punctuation marks in incomplete sentences, a dash is often placed in them. Its role in this case, as mentioned above, is to replace the missing word, usually a predicate.
I came home from class early, and my sister came late.
In this example, a dash replaces the word “came”, avoiding incorrect, unnecessary repetition.
There is bread and fruit on the table.
In this example, a dash is used instead of a missing predicate (an elliptical sentence).
How to distinguish incomplete sentences from complete ones? Let's try to figure it out!
While studying the topic “Complete and incomplete sentences,” my students ask me to explain with examples the differences between incomplete two-part sentences and incomplete one-part sentences.
If you know how to find a grammatical basis, you can learn to determine the type of simple sentence by the composition of the main parts.
Two-part: She didn't come home. One-part: Noon. I'm walking along the road. I'm thirsty. No one is visible.
Let us take into account the axiom that two-part sentences are more common in book speech, and in colloquial speech incomplete two-part sentences are preferable. They should be distinguished from one-part sentences with one main member - subject or predicate.
Let us give examples of complete and incomplete two-part sentences to clarify our statement.
No one has come here for a long time. Subject NOBODY, predicate DID NOT COME. This is a two-part proposal.
- Has anyone come here?
“I came,” I answered.
- Did not see…
The first sentence has both main clauses. But already in the second two-part sentence the subject SOMEONE is missing. The sentence has become incomplete, although its meaning is already clear. In the third sentence you can find the circumstance LONG TIME and restore the remaining missing words: SOMEONE CAME. And finally, in the last sentence we substitute the subject I.
What happens? In a short dialogue, except for the first sentence, all the rest are two-part incomplete sentences.
Let us now deal with one-part sentences. You ask: “Can they be incomplete if they already consist of one main member of the sentence? How is their incompleteness expressed? The fact of the matter is that the most necessary and only main member of the sentence is skipped!
Let's check our conclusion using examples.
-What are you talking about?
- Products.
- Nothing!
In this dialogue, the complete sentence is again the first. It is one-part, definitely personal. The rest are one-part incomplete! Let's restore the predicate from the second sentence - I CARRY (what?) products (also definitely personal). Let's add the third: Wow! GOOD (impersonal). The fourth looks like this: THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS! (impersonal sentence).
It is easy to find replica sentences; they, as a rule, add something new without repeating what is already known, and are more complete in composition than all subsequent ones. Answer sentences depend on the nature of the question and most often carry an additional situational load, accompanied by certain gestures and facial expressions.
From the context, it is possible to restore the missing main and secondary members of the sentence, which are understandable even without naming. But there is a special type of sentences that do not require context - elliptical. For example: Attention! All the way up! What's wrong with you, Mikhail? Terkin – further, the author – following.
In the above examples-dialogues we came across words-sentences. For example: Wow! Nothing! The first phrase contains an interjection expressing a certain assessment, the second is an answer, unclear in content, something between a statement and a denial.
They express affirmation or denial, give an emotional assessment or encourage action. There are several groups of such word-sentences:
Affirmative (Yes. True. Good. Okay. Of course!);
Negative (No. Not true!);
Interrogative (Huh? Well? Yes? Okay?);
Evaluative (Ugh! Ay-ay-ay! Lord!);
Incentive (Shh... Aw! Tchits! That's it!).
The figure of silence conveys some kind of understatement; it is used to interrupt the statement for one reason or another: Wait, wait, what if... Am I... They say that she...
Don't confuse them with incomplete sentences!
Are there incomplete complex sentences? Yes, of course.
First example:
- What do you mean where"? Here!
- Where is it?
-Where are we going?
This dialogue presents complex sentences with the omission of the main and subordinate parts.
Second example: In one hand I held fishing rods, and in the other - a cage with crucian carp.
This is a complex sentence, the second part is incomplete.
Third example: They moved in different ways: on level ground - on a cart, uphill - on foot, downhill - jogging.
This is a complex non-union sentence, so the second, third and fourth parts are incomplete.
From the point of view of completeness of the structure, sentences are divided into full And incomplete.
Full sentences that contain all the members necessary to express a thought are called.
Incomplete are called sentences in which any member of the sentence that is necessary in meaning and structure (main or secondary) is missing.
Two-part and one-part, common and non-common sentences can be incomplete.
The possibility of omitting members of a sentence is explained by the fact that they are clear from the context, from the situation of speech or from the structure of the sentence itself. Thus, the meaning of incomplete sentences is perceived based on the situation or context.
Here is an example of incomplete sentences in which the missing subject is restored from context .
She walked and walked. And suddenly in front of him from the hill the master sees a house, a village, a grove under the hill and a garden above the bright river.(A.S. Pushkin.) (Context - previous sentence: In a clear field, in the silvery light of the moon, immersed in her dreams, Tatyana walked alone for a long time.)
Examples of incomplete sentences, the missing members of which are restored from the situation.
He knocked down his husband and wanted to look at the widow’s tears. Unscrupulous!(A.S. Pushkin) - Leporello’s words, a response to the desire expressed by his master, Don Guan, to meet Dona Anna. It is clear that the missing subject is He or Don Guan.
- Oh my God! And here, next to this tomb!(A.S. Pushkin.) This is an incomplete sentence - Dona Anna’s reaction to the words of the protagonist of “The Stone Guest”: Don Guan admitted that he was not a monk, but “an unfortunate victim of a hopeless passion.” In his remark there is not a single word that could take the place of the missing members of the sentence, but based on the situation they can be approximately restored as follows: “You dare to say this here, in front of this coffin!».
May be missed:
- subject: How firmly she stepped into her role!(A.S. Pushkin) (The subject is restored from the subject from the previous sentence: How Tatyana has changed!);
He would have disappeared like a blister on the water, without any trace, leaving no descendants, without providing future children with either a fortune or an honest name!(N.V. Gogol) (The subject I is restored using the addition from the previous sentence: Whatever you say,” he said to himself, “if the police captain had not arrived, I might not have been able to look at the light of God again!”) (N.V. Gogol);
- addition: And I took it in my arms! And I was pulling my ears so hard! And I fed him gingerbread!(A.S. Pushkin) (Previous sentences: How Tanya has grown! How long ago, it seems, did I baptize you?);
- predicate: Just not on the street, but from here, through the back door, and there through the courtyards.(M.A. Bulgakov) (Previous sentence: Run!);
- several members of a sentence at once , including grammatical basis: How long ago?(A.S. Pushkin) (Previous sentence: Are you composing Requiem?)
Incomplete sentences are common as part of complex sentences : He is happy if she puts a fluffy boa on her shoulder...(A.S. Pushkin) You Don Guana reminded me of how you scolded me and clenched your teeth with gnashing.(A.S. Pushkin) In both sentences, the missing subject in the subordinate clause is restored from the main clause.
Incomplete sentences are very common in spoken language., in particular, in dialogue, where usually the initial sentence is developed, grammatically complete, and subsequent remarks, as a rule, are incomplete sentences, since they do not repeat already named words.
- I'm angry with my son.
- For what?
- For an evil crime.(A.S. Pushkin)
Among dialogical sentences, a distinction is made between sentences that are replicas and sentences that are answers to questions.
1. Reply sentences represent links in a common chain of replicas replacing each other. In a dialogue remark, as a rule, those members of the sentence are used that add something new to the message, and members of the sentence already mentioned by the speaker are not repeated. Replies that begin a dialogue are usually more complete in composition and independent than subsequent ones, which are lexically and grammatically based on the first replicas.For example:
- Go get a bandage.
- Will kill.
- Crawling.
- You won’t be saved anyway (Nov.-Pr.).
2. Suggestions-answers vary depending on the nature of the question or remark.
They can be answers to a question in which one or another member of the sentence is highlighted:
- Who are you?
- Passing... wandering...
- Are you spending the night or living?
- I'll take a look there...(M.G.);
- What do you have in your bundle, eagles?
“Crayfish,” the tall one answered reluctantly.
- Wow! Where did you get them?
- Near the dam(Shol.);
Can be answers to a question that requires only confirmation or denial of what was said:
- Were these your poems published in Pionerka yesterday?
- My(S. Bar.);
- Did Nikolai show it to Stepanych? - asked the father.
- Showed(S. Bar.);
- Maybe we need to get something? Bring it?
- Do not need anything(Pan.).
Could be answers to a question with suggested answers:
- Do you like it or not? - he asked abruptly.
“I like it,” he said. a (Pan.).
And finally, answers in the form of a counter question with the meaning of the statement:
- How will you live?
- What about the head, and what about the hands?(M.G.)
and answers and questions:
- I came here to propose to you.
- Offer? To me?(Ch.).
Questions and answers are lexically and structurally so closely related to each other that they often form something like a single complex sentence, where the question clause resembles a conditional clause.
For example:
- What if they break during sowing?
- Then, as a last resort, we’ll make homemade ones(G. Nik.).
Dialogical speech, regardless of what structural types of sentences make up it, has its own patterns of construction, caused by the conditions of its formation and purpose: each replica is created in the process of direct communication and therefore has a two-way communicative orientation. Many syntactic features of dialogue are associated specifically with the phenomenon of speaking, interspersed exchange of statements: this is laconicism, formal incompleteness, semantic and grammatical originality of the compatibility of replicas with each other, structural interdependence.
Elliptical sentences
In Russian there are sentences called elliptical(from the Greek word ellipsis, which means “omission”, “lack”). They omit the predicate, but retain the word that depends on it, and no context is needed to understand such sentences. These can be sentences with the meaning of movement, movement ( I'm going to the Tauride Garden(K.I. Chukovsky); speeches - thoughts ( And his wife: for rudeness, for your words(A.T. Tvardovsky), etc.
Such sentences are usually found in colloquial speech and in works of art, but are not used in book styles (scientific and official business).
Some scientists consider elliptical sentences to be a type of incomplete sentences, others consider them to be a special type of sentences that is adjacent to incomplete ones and is similar to them.
Punctuation in an incomplete sentence
In an incomplete sentence that forms part of a complex sentence, in place of the missing member (usually predicate) a dash is added , if the missing member is restored from the previous part of the sentence or from the text and a pause is made at the place of the omission.
For example:
They stood opposite each other: he, confused and embarrassed, she, with an expression of challenge on her face.
However, if there is no pause, there is no dash. For example: Alyosha looked at them, and they looked at him. Below him is a stream of lighter azure, above him is a golden ray of sun.
The dash is placed:
1. A dash is placed in place of the zero predicate in elliptical sentences divided by a pause into two components - the adverbial and the subjects.
For example:
They stick together at home. Behind them are vegetable gardens. Above the yellow straw fields, above the stubble - blue sky and white clouds(Sol.); Behind the highway there is a birch forest(Boon.); In a large room on the second floor of a wooden house there are long tables, above which hang kerosene lightning lamps with pot-bellied glass.(Kav.).
This punctuation mark is especially stable when the parts of a sentence are structurally parallel: There are eleven horses in the yard, and in the stall there is a gray stallion, angry, heavy, busty(Boon.); A wide ravine, on one side - huts, on the other - a manor(Boon.); Ahead is a deserted September day. Ahead - lost in this huge world of fragrant foliage, grass, autumn withering, calm waters, clouds, low sky(Paust.).
2. A dash is placed in incomplete sentences at the place where members of the sentence or their parts are missing. These omissions are common in parts of a complex sentence with a parallel structure, when the missing member is restored from the context of the first part of the sentence.
For example:
It was getting dark, and the clouds were either parting or setting in from three sides: on the left - almost black, with blue gaps, on the right - gray, rumbling with continuous thunder, and from the west, from behind the Khvoshchina estate, from behind the slopes above the river valley , - dull blue, in dusty streaks of rain, through which the mountains of distant clouds glowed pink(Boon.).
Compare the possibility of skipping a dash in everyday speech: They both started talking at once, one about cows, the other about sheep, but the words did not reach Kuzemkin’s consciousness(White).
3. A dash is placed when members of a sentence are omitted, restored in the context of dialogue lines or adjacent sentences.
For example: Do you like green onion pies? I am like passion!(M.G.); In another room, a jeweler's workshop has been recreated. In the third there is a shepherd's hut, with all the shepherd's utensils. In the fourth there is an ordinary water mill. The fifth shows the setting of a hut where shepherds make cheese. In the sixth there is simply the setting of a peasant hut. In the seventh there is the setting of a hut where these same chergs and halishte were woven. All this has been skillfully recreated(Sol.).
4. A dash is placed in sentences consisting of two word forms with the meaning of subject, object, circumstance and constructed according to the following schemes: who - what, who - where, what - to whom, what - where, what - how, what - where, etc.
For example: All wells are operational; The microphone has a heart!; Book - by mail; Grades are for knowledge; You have the key to the university; Following the record - an accident; Trains – “green”!; First of all, efficiency.
Based on their meaning and structure, sentences are divided into complete and incomplete sentences.
Complete sentences
Complete a sentence is a sentence with all the members necessary for completeness of structure and meaning. For example: I am reading an interesting article. Marya Ivanovna solemnly presented the first-graders with bright alphabet books. The forest revealed its dark green groves overgrown with thick mosses before people.
The predicate in this sentence agrees with the subject and also controls the object. The result is a continuous chain that connects all members of the sentence with logical meaning.
Incomplete sentences
Incomplete sentences are sentences in which members necessary for completeness and structure are absent. Missing sentence members in incomplete sentences are often restored from the context. Most often, incomplete sentences are found in dialogues. For example:
In the morning the girl ran up to her mother and asked:
What about the Tooth Fairy? Did she come?
“I came,” my mother answered...
Is she beautiful?
Certainly.
We see that each subsequent replica of this dialogue adds to the topic specified in the dialogue itself. Very often incomplete sentences are one-piece offers.
Petya, what class are you in?
At nine.
Incomplete sentences can be part of complex sentences. For example: The sun warms the earth, but labor warms man.
Incomplete sentences also include sentences with a missing predicate. For example: Our strength is in unity.
Incomplete sentences, as well as complete sentences, are divided into two-part and one-part, extended and non-extended. It should be noted that an incomplete two-part sentence, the predicate or subject in which the missing one remains two-part, despite the fact that only one main member is presented.
Using complete and incomplete sentences
Due to the fact that missing clauses in incomplete sentences greatly simplify the process of communication, such sentences are widely used in colloquial speech, as well as in works of art. In scientific literature, as well as in business language, complete sentences are used predominantly.
By the presence or absence of the necessary members of the proposal distinguish between complete and incomplete simple sentences.
Complete sentences- these are simple sentences that contain all the members necessary for the semantic completeness of the sentence. Being strong is good, being smart is twice as good.
Incomplete sentences- these are sentences in which any member of the sentence (main or secondary) or several members of the sentence are missing. Missed sentence members are easily restored from previous sentences or the speech situation itself. The world is illuminated by the sun, and man is illuminated by knowledge . Compare: ... and a person is illuminated by knowledge.
Incomplete two-part proposals should be distinguished from one-part complete, in which there is only one main member of the sentence, and the second is not and cannot be in the structure.
Both two-part and one-part sentences can be incomplete. Sentences in dialogue are often incomplete.
- What's your name?
- Alexei.
- What about your father?
- Nikolaich.
An incomplete sentence can be the second part of a complex sentence. Alyosha looked at them, and they looked at him. The predicate in the second part of the complex sentence is omitted. You received the letters, but I did not. Addendum omitted.
The omission of sentence members in pronunciation can be expressed by a pause, and in writing it is indicated by a dash. It dawns early in summer, and late in winter.
In the so-called situational incomplete sentences missing members are not restored. They are not named anywhere in the text by words, but are inferred from the speech situation, that is, their meaning is revealed by extra-speech circumstances, gestures, and facial expressions. Behind me! Cheers! Bon Voyage!
